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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Today I am here to talk about the release of not just one, but two books.

Kendra Ardnek has published her Bookania Short Story Woodcutter Quince. For those of you who have read Sew, It's a Quest and/or Do You Take This Quest, Woodcutter Quince is about Casperl, the prince who is engaged to Doranna. I've read it and it is a delightful story. In celebration of it's release, three other Kendra books are free today: Sew, It's a Quest, The Prior Quest and CinderEddy.

In the depths of Black forest, strange creatures are rumored to exist.
Casperl isn't sure he's seen any of them, but he does know that there is
a princess trapped on top of an enchanted mountain. Only a true prince
can free her. He's certainly not one.

Also, Jennifer Frietag's planetary fantasy novel Plenilune is now available in paperback!

Plenilune on CreateSpace The fate of Plenilune hangs on the election of the Overlord, for which
Rupert de la Mare and his brother are the only contenders, but when
Rupert's unwilling bride-to-be uncovers his plot to murder his brother,
the conflict explodes into civil war.

To assure the minds of the
lord-electors of Plenilune that he has some capacity for humanity,
Rupert de la Mare has been asked to woo and win a lady before he can
become the Overlord, and he will do it-even if he has to kidnap her.

En route to Naples to catch a suitor, Margaret Coventry was not expecting a suitor to catch her.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Today, I'm taking part in Rachel Rossano's blog tour highlighting the release of her new book The King of Anavrea. You can see the cover below, along with the links to buy the book, and at the end of the post is an interview with Rachel.

Rachel Rossano is a happily married mother of three children. She spends her days teaching, mothering, and keeping the chaos at bay. After the little ones are in bed, she immerses herself in the fantasy worlds of her books. Tales of romance, adventure, and virture set in a medieval fantasy world are her preference, but she also writes speculative fantasy and a bit of science fiction.

First, please tell us a little bit about yourself!
I am a happily married, homeschooling, stay-at-home mom. My three little ones (twin 4 year-olds and an almost 7 year old) keep my life full and spontaneous. Writing is a bit of a coping mechanism, something that is mine midst this season that is so centered on my children. I also see it as an investment toward the time when they don’t need as much of my time and attention like when they go off to college. Please give us a synopsis of The King of Anavrea.Ireic Theodoric didn’t expect to become king. His older half-brother was supposed to take the throne, but through an unexpected turn of events Ireic became the next king. Pressured to make a political marriage alliance by his overreaching council, he signs a treaty with Sardmara. However, before the ink is dry on the parchment, he discovers that his bride is not at hand. Instead, she is in need of rescuing before a wedding can occur.Lirth Parnan, only daughter of the King of Sardmara, has spent the past five years in captivity. Kidnapped in an unsuccessful attempt to control her father, she remains isolated and apparently forgotten until one day a rescuer arrives. She has heard of Anavrea and her king. Apparently he knows even less about her. She has to break the bad news to him that she is blind.Ireic is now faced with an impossible situation. If he marries her, his council will not accept her as queen. If he doesn’t marry her, her father will declare war on Anavrea. In the midst of it all he needs to figure out what he thinks of this quiet woman with nerves of steel and a strength that endures despite her weak frame.

What inspired you to write the Anavrea series?
It all started back in about 2000 in Schopfheim, Germany, which is in the black forest area. The region inspired the Grimm Brothers. Now it is best known for cuckoo clocks. My husband was on a two week business trip with me along. The two weeks turned into four. I read the books I brought with me, read all the English books available at the local bookstore that I could tolerate (horror is really not my genre), and my current writing project was not going well. So, I started a new project. The end result was The Crown of Anavrea.

The King of Anavrea grew out of a desire to give Ireic his own story. He was an unexpectedly wonderful secondary character in The Crown. I felt guilty forcing him to take the crown his brother had refused when he clearly didn’t want it either.

What were some of the songs you listened to while writing? (The book's soundtrack, if you will.)
My favorite writing music at the moment is pretty much anything by The Piano Guys. I love their work. They weren’t around when I was writing The King of Anavrea, so they were my editing music. I think at the time I was writing The King of Anavrea was when I was enjoying Mandy Patinkin and Roger Whitaker. I have a large collection of their works so it is hard to pin point exactly which songs fit where.

How long did it take you to write it?
I am not really sure how long it took me to write The King of Anavrea. At least a year, more likely more. My furor for the story started out strong and then faded to nothing. The unfinished manuscript sat for a while before I picked it up again and determined to finish it. Posting a chapter a week on my Xanga blog, I caught up to where I had stopped. Then I started writing forward at the same rate. The feedback from my readers encouraged me to keep going until I reached the end.

What is your favorite quote from the book?
“Dimly aware of the outside door opening and thumping shut again, she [Lirth] tightened her hold on the faith that had brought her through until now. She was being tested, but God had seen her through every trial so far. He would be no less faithful at the time of her death. She was ready. Soon I shall see Your face.”

Which character or characters were the easiest to write?
Lirth proved to be an easy character to write. She remained consistently sweet with this backbone that came out when I least expected it. I enjoyed spending time with her.

Which character or characters were the hardest to write?
The bad guys were hard. At the time I wrote this novel, I lacked the ability to write good bad guys. I kept things so vague it wasn’t even clear who was the bad guy, that their motivation was, or how to resolve the tension that came with them adequately. Let us just say I spent a lot of time on the bad guys when I edited for publication.

Who was your favorite minor character?
My favorite was definitely Liam Tremain. I liked him so much that I gave him his own book. Although he isn’t officially a Theodoric, his story (which sort of also follows up on Ireic and Lirth) is the next novel in the series.

What is your opinion of 'character casting'?
I think it is a great idea, but it hasn’t worked well for me. My characters live in my head as personalities. Some of them have specific characteristics that must be there. Examples would be Lirth with her blindness and Ireic with his brown eyes and the nose he shares with his brother. Other things are not as clear. I have a face type in mind, but they aren’t exactly like anyone I have met or seen, yet.

What scene was the most fun to write?
I loved writing the assassination attempt scene. Written from Lirth’s perspective made it both a challenge and a joy. Instead of using her eyes, I could only rely on her smell, taste, touch, and hearing.

How about a scene that absolutely ripped you apart while you were writing it?
The torture scene hurt. I really liked Lirth by that point and I felt for her.

Did you plot out the story before writing it or did you just sit down and write?
When I wrote The King of Anavrea I was definitely a pantser. Even I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I followed the characters.

What was the most unexpected part of writing The King of Anavrea?
The writing stalled because I decided I hated writing about politics. Now, almost a decade later, most of the books I am writing have something to do with the politics of a nation. Whether the country is Rhynan (the Novels of Rhynan series) or Pratinus (Living Sacrifice), political happenings are a major part of the plots.

What is an interesting piece of trivia about The King of Anavrea?
I seriously contemplated killing off Lirth at one point. I am thankful I never went through with it, though.

The King of Anavrea is self-published, isn't it? Why did you choose self-publishing?
Back when I first started seriously pursuing publication, I discovered that most of the publishing houses out there are not looking for the genre I was writing. If they were, they weren’t publishers with whom I was interested in being associated. So, given the choice of never publishing my stories and going out on my own, I decided to strike out on my own. I have made my share of mistakes and learned some lessons the hard way, but now I wouldn’t consider doing it any other way. The process is definitely a lot easier these days and a lot less scary than when I started out looking for a publishing platform to distribute my books.

Do you have any interesting writing quirks or behaviors?
I am a nomadic writer. It comes from not having a desk. My laptop frequently sits on my kitchen table in the center of the chaos of our life. I grab moments when I can. When the kids are in bed, I move to the soft couch and a table that was originally a mini-desk for my kids. It is the perfect height for typing while sitting on the couch. Also, once or twice a week, when the kids are in bed and my husband is home, I run away and write at a local restaurant or Dunkin Donuts. Somewhere with no wifi, no children I am responsible for, and no chores sitting there tempting me to procrastinate.

I know you have at least two young children. How do you make time to write and be a mother at the same time? Is it hard?
I have three children. Finding the time to write is a constant challenge. It is like balancing two dreams. I always wanted to be a mother. That hasn’t changed. I only started to seriously consider writing as a career when it looked like we weren’t going have children. Now I try to balance the two. I think having writing as a hobby has been good for me, though. I have a life apart from my children, something that is mine alone. It gives me perspective that I might’ve not had if I devoted all of my energy into my children and my house.

Children can be extremely inspiring at times. There have been many scenes in my own stories that were inspired by my younger siblings. Are there any scenes in The King of Anavrea that were particularly inspired by your children?
At the time I wrote the first draft of The King of Anavrea I didn’t have children. Now that I do, they have definitely inspired characters in my novels. The son of my main character in Duty: First Novel of Rhynan has many similarities to my oldest son.

What is one question you've always wished an interviewer would ask you?
Hmm... I am always terrible at these kinds of questions. How about “Can I come over and watch your kids while you write?”

What is one thought you hope readers will take away from The King of Anavrea?
I want them to finish reading The King of Anavrea with a feeling of hope that no matter what happens to them the Lord has a purpose, a plan, and reason for everything in their lives. He will never leave them or forsake them, even in the worst of circumstances. Just because we cannot “see” the reason doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Sew, It's a Quest

Kendra E Ardnek

Summary:Robin and Robert are royal twins. They are the only two to have
received a Fairy Godmother gift in nearly a century, an amazing honor.
Soon it became clear that their gifts had been switched and a search began
to find the Fairy Godmother to right the mistake. When she is finally
sighted by a knight, the family learns that the pair must find her for
themselves and they only have until their 18th birthday ... only 4
months away. Will they be able to find her in time?

My Review:
Kendra has done a delightful job of weaving together several different fairy tales, each with their own unique twist. Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood and Diamonds and Toads are just a few of the fairy tales to be found within this story.

To pique your interest, I'm just going to list a few of the things I particularly liked about this story:
~ The
bag-cats. And my siblings loved them so much that they have become a part of our household vocabulary.
~ Eric killing the snake. (I HATE snakes.)
~ Robert and Robin's banter about Robin always losing her lists.
~ The one list Robin never lost.
~ Robin Hood's gift to Princess Robin.
~ Robert's archery.

Chapter 26 was my favorite, especially the hilarious duel. I had guessed how it would end, but it was highly entertaining nonetheless.

Favorite Characters:
Robin is my top favorite. We're too much alike for her to not be my favorite character
Robert: He's the perfect foil for his sister and his level head and calm manner when Robin is flying off the handle is usually the only thing that stands between her and trouble.
Eric: I chuckled my way through most of his and Robin's scenes.
Robin Hood: A matchmaking Robin Hood was certainly not what I expected but I enjoyed it very much.
Maid Marian: Spunky, swordfighting, tree climbing and seems younger than she actually is.

I give this book a 10 out of 10 rating and have recommended it to several people. Everyone in my family from my mother down to the four-year-old likes this book. I rate it a 5 out of 5 for reading aloud. We have read it out loud to my younger siblings at least three times and all of them happily gather around to hear it. They eagerly wait for new installments in the Bookania series and regularly ask me 'when the next book will be out'.

Monday, October 6, 2014

But, as usual, I am going to make you wait until the end for the cover. :) So, to see the cover, you have to read all the other stuff first. Or... I suppose you can just scroll to the bottom - but, that's cheating! *gasp* :D

Synopsis:The fate of Plenilune hangs on the election of the Overlord, for which Rupert de la Mare and his brother are the only contenders, but when Rupert’s unwilling bride-to-be uncovers his plot to murder his brother, the conflict explodes into civil war.

To assure the minds of the lord-electors of Plenilune that he has some capacity for humanity, Rupert de la Mare has been asked to woo and win a lady before he can become the Overlord, and he will do it—even if he has to kidnap her.

En route to Naples to catch a suitor, Margaret Coventry was not expecting a suitor to catch her.

Plenilune is planetary fantasy, and if you are asking, "What kind of genre is planetary fantasy??", well then, visit THIS POST of Jennifer's to find out.

The release date is OCTOBER 20th. Mark your calendars - this is one book you will not want to miss!

And now, about the author of this delicious looking novel:JENNIFER FREITAG lives with her husband in a house they call Clickitting, with their two cats Minnow and Aquila, and their own fox kit due to be born in early December. Jennifer writes in no particular genre because she never learned how, she is make of sparks like Boys of Blur, and if she could grasp the elements, she would bend them like lightning. Until then, she sets words on fire.

Living with her must be excruciating.

Jennifer blogs at: The Penslayer. Her posts are excellent reading, especially for writers. She is also the author of The Shadow Things, which I have not yet read myself, but which has been highly recommended to me.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

I was given a copy of this book free of charge in return for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

I don't normally read Christian fiction, for lots of reasons, which I
won't go into right now, but chiefly because, as a general rule, I find it shallow, boring, and unrealistic. I especially don't
read Christian historical fiction because most of what I have read to date has been historically inaccurate, which was enough to sour
me, a self-professed history geek, on the genre.

However,
I had heard much about Melanie Dickerson's books and was curious about
them. So, when she offered advanced reader copies, I volunteered. The very title was enough to
interest me, because I like princesses and I love spies. Put the two
together and you automatically interest me. :D (And isn't the cover gorgeous?!!)

THE PRINCESS SPY

Melanie Dickerson

Margaretha has always been a romantic, and
hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true
love. But then an injured man is brought to Hagenheim Castle, claiming
to be an English lord who was attacked by Claybrook and left for dead.
And only Margaretha—one of the few who speaks his language—understands
the wild story.

Margaretha finds herself unable to pass Colin’s
message along to her father, the duke, and convinces herself “Lord
Colin” is just an addled stranger. Then Colin retrieves an heirloom she
lost in a well, and asks her to spy on Claybrook as repayment.
Margaretha knows she could never be a spy—not only is she unable to keep
anything secret, she’s sure Colin is completely wrong about her
potential betrothed. Though when Margaretha overhears Claybrook one day,
she discovers her romantic notions may have been clouding her judgment
about not only Colin but Claybrook as well. It is up to her to save her
father and Hagenheim itself from Claybrook’s wicked plot.

My thoughts:
I liked this book. I didn't adore it, and I wouldn't put it on my list of top 50 books, but that has nothing to do with the book itself and everything to do with my personal reading tastes.

The Princess Spy mixes adventure and romance quite well. Margaretha is a realistic heroine, complete with her tendency to talk too much, especially when nervous or unsure of herself. Colin was a true gentleman, and his journey of revenge is well-written, as are his reactions to Margaretha and a land where he cannot speak the language. Their romance was sweet and well-handled.

I really liked Toby, because of his childish innocence and the knack he possessed (in common with all children) of asking searching, apparently innocent questions, but embarrassing to the people being questioned. Sir Bezilo ties with Toby for my favorite minor character, because of his unswerving loyalty to the family of the Duke.

I think the two scenes at which I laughed the most were when Colin lost his memory temporarily and was talking without inhibitions, and then again when Toby was asking some rather... uncomfortable questions of Margaretha and Colin asks that she translate the questions. My two favorite scenes would have to be when Margaretha is knocking out guards. :)

Melanie did her research as far as costumes, architecture, physical geography and languages are concerned. I could feel the aura of historic Germany as I read. I applaud her for conveying the historical atmosphere so well.

What I didn't like:
The book was set in the year 1413. Germany and the entire Holy Roman Empire was overwhelmingly Catholic at that time, yet aside from mention of there being a priest in the castle and iron crosses on the walls, this book makes no mention of Catholicism. The theology and Christianity in the book has a very Protestant flavor to it, which would not have been historically correct until over one hundred years later. Also, the language used in speaking of God in this book was a bit to too modern, as was the attitude. I found it a little jarring, but anyone who isn't a borderline-obsessive history geek probably won't notice it. :)

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good, inspirational, historical read. And I plan on reading more of Melanie's books.